The new Law on Public Information and Media was published in the Official Gazette of the RS no. 92/2023 on October 27, 2023, and came into effect eight days after publication, i.e., on November 4, 2023 (“the Law”). However, certain provisions related to a Unified Information System and parts of the provisions on a Media Registry and a Registry of Media Content Producers will be applicable from January 1, 2025.

One of the primary objectives of the Law is the establishment of the Unified Information System for transparent monitoring of co-financing of media projects, the introduction of the Registry of Media Content Producers alongside the existing Media Registry at the Business Registers Agency, and a more detailed regulation of the activities of media publishers. These changes aim to create a framework for comprehensive and thorough control and regulation of media operations.

Here is an overview of the most significant changes.

1. Unified Information System for Monitoring Co-Financing of Media Projects

The Law stipulates that the Ministry responsible for public information affairs is authorized to, in order to unify all relevant information and improve the transparency of implementation, establish and manage the Unified Information System for the implementation and monitoring of co-financing of projects in the field of public information (“the Uniform Information System”).

The Unified Information System aims to enable the entry and acquisition, processing and delivery of data, i.e., the preparation, creation, and submission of documents in electronic form of importance for the competition, the commission’s work, easier access to media content, as well as the preparation and publication of public tenders.

In accordance with the Law, the obligors of entering data and documents and users of the Unified Information System are:

• the Republic of Serbia and autonomous provinces, i.e., local self-government units that conduct public tenders;
• publishers and producers of media content participating in tenders;
• journalistic and media associations and media experts applying for membership in the commission;
• representatives of state authorities, the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media and the Press Council imposing measures on the media for violating regulations and professional and ethical standards; and
• Commission members.

The obligors of data and documents entry are required to appoint an authorized person within 15 days from the date of establishment of the Unified Information System, who will perform the tasks of entering data and documents through the appropriate web portal on behalf and for the account of the obligors. In case of non-compliance with these provisions, the obligor is denied the right to participate in the public tender, i.e., the right to apply as a member of the commission.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Law, publishers and producers of media content that participate in public tenders in the field of public information and media associations and media experts who apply as members of commissions are obliged to enter data and register them on the web portal of the Unified Information System by the end of the year preceding the year of the announcement of the tender.

2. Co-financing of the projects in the field of public information in order to achieve public interest

In accordance with the Law, the project co-financing procedure will be carried out exclusively through the Unified Information System, based on public tenders and individual grants, as well as on the basis of regulations on the allocation of state aid and protection of competition, without discrimination.

As was stipulated by the previous law, the tender is announced for projects of production of media content and professional education, improvement of professional and ethical standards and research in the field of public information.

Unlike previous regulation, the Law now stipulates that a tender is announced, and funds are allocated for projects whose implementation can take up to one year from the date of the decision on the allocation of funds (up until now, this term was three years).

For the first time, the Law clearly defined the obligation of the body that announces the tender to announce it no later than March 1 of the current year for that calendar year. The tender is announced in the form of a public invite and published on the web presentation of the competent authority, as well as on the web portal of the Unified Information System. What is also new is that the Law now stipulates that a tender participant, who does not have the appropriate capacities, may engage another person for the production of media content whose value does not exceed 20% of the amount of funds allocated by the authority for the realization of the project, provided that this person is registered in Registry of Media Content Producers.

When it comes to criteria for evaluating projects, the Law introduces a novelty by providing that when evaluating projects, the extent to which the media (through which the project will be implemented) adheres to professional and ethical standards is also taken into account. Whether the criterion in question is fulfilled is proven by obtaining data from the competent bodies that in the year preceding the tender, no measure was issued by the regulatory body in the case of electronic media, i.e., no act of the self-regulatory body of the Press Council was adopted, establishing that the specific media violated legal provisions, i.e., the standard of professional ethics.

The Law for the first time stipulates in detail that in the tender cannot participate appointed, elected, and designated persons in the bodies of the Republic of Serbia, autonomous provinces, local self-government units, bodies of public companies and business entities, institutions and other organizations whose founder i.e., the shareholder is the Republic of Serbia, as well as the affiliates of the said.

Furthermore, it is envisaged that the decision on the allocation of funds shall be made without delay by the head of the authority that announced the tender, based on the reasoned proposal of the commission, and within 90 days from the date of the conclusion of the tender (the previous regulation did not specify a deadline).

The recipient of the funds is obliged to submit a report on the activities carried out, and the novelty is that the recipient of funds in the amount of more than 1,200,000 dinars is obliged to submit the report of the authorized auditor along with the narrative and financial report. The competent authority now conducts an internal evaluation of realized projects once a year, as well as an external evaluation once every three years. The Republic of Serbia, an autonomous province, i.e., a unit of local self-government has the obligation to conduct an analysis of the necessary media content at least once every three years.

3. Registry of Media Content Producers and Media Registry

The Law stipulates that the Business Registers Agency should, in addition to the Media Register, also maintain the Registry of Media Content Producers (“Registry“). The purpose of maintaining the Registry is to provide the public with information about the media and producers of media content.

The consequence of not being registered in the Registry is that such a producer of media content cannot be co-financed projects or in any other way be granted state aid in the field of public information.

The law envisages the obligation of media content producers to submit an application for recording data that is the subject of registration in the Registry within six months from the date of establishment of the Registry.

Also, the Law introduced the obligation to enter additional data in the Media Registry, which is maintained by the Business Registers Agency, and media publishers are obliged to, within three months from the date of entry into force of the Law, i.e., until February 4, 2024, register special data about the media, such as the name and personal identification number of a domestic natural person, or the passport number and country of issuance of the passport of a foreign natural person who is the editor-in-chief of the media, data about related persons who have more than 5% shares in the share capital and other data in accordance with the law.

The Law also prescribes the consequence in the event that the registration of the relevant data is not executed within the prescribed period, namely that the Business Registers Agency will delete the media from the Register ex officio, without passing a special act on deletion.

4. Other significant novelties in the Law

The Law contains new provisions regulating issues in the field of labor law in media sector, which prescribe that the employer is obliged to determine the working time schedule for all employees in the media, in accordance with the law regulating labor. The employer is obliged to provide the employees with a written notification about the working time schedule no later than 48 hours in advance. In case of urgent need, the employer can change the working time schedule no later than during the working day for the next working day if circumstances occur that could not be foreseen, eliminated or avoided, provided that the employee is provided with a daily rest in accordance with the law regulating labor. Also, the employer can introduce a standby time, with the right to additional earnings. Standby time cannot last longer than four hours a day, i.e., twelve hours a week, and it cannot be introduced to an employee who works overtime or within the regime of rescheduling of the working hours.

The novelty, which also regulates the field of labor law in media sector, is the introduction of the right to be excluded from communication. Namely, the employee has the right not to respond to the employer’s communication during the weekly and annual leave, in accordance with the schedule of working hours and the schedule of annual leave passed by the employer, regardless of how it was made (telephone call, electronic messages, and similar), unless during his absence there were no extraordinary circumstances in the country, concerning the area covered by the employee (emergency situations, states of emergency, states of general danger to citizens’ health, etc.).

Furthermore, one of the most controversial provisions in the proposal of the Law, which was adopted as such, is the provision which stipulates that the publisher can be an entrepreneur and a legal entity, and that the publisher cannot be the Republic of Serbia, an autonomous province and unit of local self-government, nor an institution or a legal entity that is wholly or partially in public ownership, i.e., that is wholly or partially financed from public revenues. However, this provision does not apply to:

• public services at the republic and provincial level, institutions for public information on the territory of autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija, institutions for public information of councils of national minorities and
• when the founder of the legal entity in question is a company that performs the activity of electronic communications, provided that it is not a beneficiary of state aid.

​In an identical manner, the Law regulates the issue of producers of media content, i.e., it prescribes the same prohibitions, as well as the mentioned exceptions.

5. Conclusion

Apart from the fact that the legislator again failed to regulate the rights and obligations of journalists in detail, in this particular case, despite numerous objections and proposals for amending the Law, an opportunity was missed to regulate the work of producers of media content who are natural persons, i.e., who do not perform public information activities in the form of entrepreneurs or legal entities. Namely, Article 41 of the Law stipulates that producers of media content are legal entities or entrepreneurs who, as a business activity, produce content intended for publication in the media, and are not publishers, and that as such they must be registered with the authority of the Republic of Serbia responsible for business registers in the Registry of Media Content Producers.

The consequences of non-registration for a publisher whose media is not entered in the Register, i.e., a producer of media content that is not entered in the Register, are reflected in the fact that they cannot be co-financed projects or in any other way be granted state aid in the field of public information.

Transitional provisions of the Law stipulate that producers of media content are obliged to submit an application for recording data to be entered in the Registry within six months from the date of establishment of the Registry, but without any sanctions if they do not do so.

In other words, except that the legal solution from the previous law has been retained, in the sense that a fine of 50,000 dinars to 150,000 dinars will be imposed for an offense on a natural person who publishes a newspaper or provides services of a radio or television program, and is not registered for carrying out the business activity while ignoring the omissions from the previous law, the legislator failed to regulate the gray zone of public information (as it is, for example, the case in Montenegro), which takes place unhindered and without any control in practice in such a way that numerous natural persons provide media services, i.e., public information services via an internet portal (not in the form of an entrepreneur or legal entity), which do not represent radio or television program services.

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